The Scoop: A close imitation, but it’s no cigar
Since Charlie was on vacation last week, he wasn’t here to write his widely popular “What’s the Word” column which appears in Sunday’s edition of the Standard.
Charlie has a writing style which touches the hearts of men, women and children alike. It’s with that in mind, I thought it might seem like Charlie was among us today if I imitated his witty banter to bring you this week’s installment of “What’s the Word.” I know it won’t be the same without lovable ol’ Charlie, but I’ll do my best.
People frequently ask me about the origin of certain phrases (OK, they really ask Charlie but remember I’m pretending to be Charlie so play along). One of the latest things I’ve been asked pertains to the phrase “skeletons in the closet.” It means to have dark secrets in your past, but where did it come from?
According to my research, the phrase originated from a rather odd and centuries-old story from India. A son writes home to his mother and asks her to find someone to make him six custom-made shirts. The mother finds a suitable candidate and visits the woman’s house.
When the woman reaches inside a closet to produce a sample of her work, there is a skeleton. The woman kisses the skeleton then brings out several shirts. The mother is perplexed and can’t help asking, “Why did you just kiss that skeleton?”
The woman replies that the skeleton was a man who was once a fierce rival of her husband. Her husband eventually killed the man in a duel and the hatred was so deep he kept the body until it decomposed into a skeleton. The husband then hung the skeleton in the closet and forced his wife into the habit of kissing it as a symbol of her gratitude that the rival was killed and not the husband.
The mother wrote her son and conveyed the story about the shirt-maker and used the phrase that the woman sure has a big “skeleton in her closet.” The phrase was actually altered a bit and made popular in England as a “skeleton in your house.” It was modified again to its current use of “skeleton in the closet” because a closet suggests something more secretive than a house, or so the story goes.
Whew! That was tough. With an explanation like that, I can see writing this column is no piece of cake as Charlie makes it appear. Which leads me to the question of where does the expression “a piece of cake” come from?
I’m glad you asked. The tradition of giving cakes as prizes stems back to the pre-Civil War days and was a common practice especially in rural areas. It was popular at social gatherings for people to walk in a procession in pairs around a cake. The most graceful pair was awarded the cake as the prize.
The old-time tradition gave way to the expression “it’s a cake walk” to signify something that’s easy. The similar expression “a piece of cake” comes from the same origin.
I guess I could say that explanation was a little easier than the first. In fact, I might be so bold to say it was a piece of cake. I can say that without difficulty because the “cat doesn’t have my tongue.”
And, what a coincidence, the next expression I’m going to talk about is “cat got your tongue” which refers to someone who is struggling to come up with the right words. But why would a cat have someone’s tongue? Why not a dog or a bird?
Glad you asked. The accepted view is that the expression came into popular use in the 1800s. The explanation is that it relates to the Middle Eastern practice of removing the tongues of liars and then feeding them to cats. From what I understand, if you think your cat loves liver and chicken, just wait until it eats tongue. It will never eat dry food again.
I realize this column may have come close to duplicating Charlie’s wit, but no cigar. And since I’m on the topic, the phrase “close, but no cigar” comes from the old tradition of slot machines which used to give cigars as prizes.
James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191.